A Time for Rivalries to Fade and for Soccer to Unite

By ROB HUGHES, The New York Times

LONDON — Fabrice Muamba, the player whose heart stopped beating in a crowded stadium on Saturday, was alive but still gravely ill in a hospital on Tuesday.

Tributes and get well messages were laid outside Reebok Stadium in Bolton, England this week for Fabrice Muamba.

The cardiac specialists keep vigil. The games play on.

There is a tremor in the pulse of the sport, not simply in England, where Muamba fell, but around the world. Players who know him, and thousands who do not, offer prayers through their Twitter accounts, and Real Madrid’s team entered the field on Sunday wearing shirts with a double message.